Question of the Week: 5/8/16

The Question of the Week is posted every Sunday and will consist of a question followed by my answer and explanation to the same. Some questions will only require a simple answer that could potentially be followed by an explanation. Many questions will be writer oriented, but not all. Everyone is encouraged to answer in the comments and discussions/follow up questions are more than welcome!

What kind of pet(s) do you have?

I have two cats: Kin mei and Cid.

Kin-mei is my 12 (almost 13) year old half to three quarters Siamese. His name is supposed to be Japanese for “gold eyes,” though I think they’re a bit more green than gold. I’ve had him since he was a kitten, and he’s the king of the house.

We knew from the first day we took him home at six weeks old that we were dealing with no ordinary intellect. Truly, Kin-mei is a super genius. I don’t remember what he did, but it amazed me and my roommate at the time. This is apparently a trait of Siamese cats.

We adopted Kin-mei from a friend whose Siamese cat Argent escaped for a bit (yep, I actually know his mom’s name) got pregnant and subsequently had kittens. Unfortunately….their house burned down a few years later and all the cats within (including Kin-mei’s mother) died, sooooo now I have another sad on Mothers Day *sigh*

Anyway, I’ve never had a pet longer than Kin-mei, and though he may be a grumpy, old man at times, he’s my grumpy old man, and I can’t imagine life without him.

This fancy fellow

Then there’s Cid.

The jester

We adopted Cid 5 (?) years ago, because Kin-mei was being a bit destructive while I and my husband were at work. We figured he was bored and would do well with a little brother/sister. Initially, we were looking at this adorable calico girl, but when we got to the shelter (Chester County SPCA for the curious) and talked to the people there, we found out the cat in question might not work too well with the king.

Cid (whose name was John at the time…what an odd name for a cat lol) purred all the time, seemed super friendly, and not too dominant. Though we’d initially been looking for an older cat, we decided to go with Cid who seemed to be between six months to a year old. Since he was not only a brown tabby, but also a bit sick, the shelter people told us he’d probably still be there if we took a few days to make our decision. Apparently, brown tabbies are nearly as hard to adopt out as black cats (wtf?), plus he had a bit of a cold due to people probably sticking their fingers in the cages…something you are not supposed to do. We fostered him for a week so he could be out of that environment, gave him medicine, then took him back to be neutered. They can’t put them under anesthesia if they’re that congested, and being out of the shelter environment will foster recovery.

Cid’s name is of course from the recurring Final Fantasy character, which itself comes from El Cid. That I knew, but what I recently found out what that El Cid translates to “the lord,” so maybe our little clown is really the ruler. That would be like Butterbumps or Patchface being heir to the Iron Throne (#ASOIAFhumor) though one of this is decidedly creepier than the other.

Cid drives Kin-mei up the wall most of the time. He’ll annoy him until he leaves his spot, and they fight on a fairly consistent basis; however…they will clean each other and fall asleep together once all of their battles are done.

I remember! So many kitties. I think next week’s question will be geared towards what pet you’d want to have if you could. I almost mentioned that in this post, but figured it could just be another question.